I have been reading some of the post in these topics but I haven't found which OS is best. If you would please tell us what the Different OS's have/do not have and why you like it. That would give us all an understanding of what the OS's have going for it. Also if you could compare it to Windows then that would help sway some of us from it.

This is coming from a Windows user. I have only ever had windows. The only other OS I have tried is the IOS from my iPhone 4.

Has anyone ever thought about making this a sticky? It would help alot.

It really depends on the person and what they want to do with the OS. There is Linux and all the varieties that go along with it. Ubuntu is easy to install and pretty easy to use. There is Chrome from Google. I've never used it so I can't say much about it. But don't rule out Solaris (I guess they still are working on it.)

The only other really big OSes are Linux (and its many distributions and derivatives) and BSD.

Most people here run Windows because that is what 90% of programs are written for, including virtually every commercial game. If a program is open source, most likely BSD, Mac, and Linux versions exist as well, or at least can be compiled.
I would have to go with a well developed Linux distribution like Fedora, Gentoo, or Debian variants (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc) as the best as far as performance, security, and customization go.

However, I use Windows because of the superior driver support from hardware manufacturers, familiarity of the interface, and the fact that I am a gamer, and need windows to run my games and other programs. On high end hardware the performance gain of running a light Linux OS verses Windows shrinks considerably as well. Better driver support (especially for graphics cards) can mean that Windows can win out in performance in some areas.

For a non-gamer who is running a netbook or low end hardware, Linux is great though. Some Linux distributions such as Redhat are the top of the line OSes for servers too.

The only other really big OSes are Linux (and its many distributions and derivatives) and BSD.

Most people here run Windows because that is what 90% of programs are written for, including virtually every commercial game. If a program is open source, most likely BSD, Mac, and Linux versions exist as well, or at least can be compiled. I would have to go with a well developed Linux distribution like Fedora, Gentoo, or Debian variants (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc) as the best as far as performance, security, and customization go.

However, I use Windows because of the superior driver support from hardware manufacturers, familiarity of the interface, and the fact that I am a gamer, and need windows to run my games and other programs. On high end hardware the performance gain of running a light Linux OS verses Windows shrinks considerably as well. Better driver support (especially for graphics cards) can mean that Windows can win out in performance in some areas.

For a non-gamer who is running a netbook or low end hardware, Linux is great though. Some Linux distributions such as Redhat are the top of the line OSes for servers too.

What he said though i am going to say if your a linux n00b don't try gentoo. I spent 3 days trying to make that thing work(you have to compile it from tarballs) and then i booted up logged in and broke it.......I would recommend Linux Mint as the easiest for a first timer.

What he said though i am going to say if your a linux n00b don't try gentoo. I spent 3 days trying to make that thing work(you have to compile it from tarballs) and then i booted up logged in and broke it.......I would recommend Linux Mint as the easiest for a first timer.

@SpeedCrazy+1 Gentoo is a beast. I never got my install from scratch to work right either. If you want to try it out without having to compile it yourself, you can try Sabayon. Its basically a pre-compiled and setup Gentoo distro.

@OPLinux Mint is great, and I would recommend it too. I am actually typing this on my Linux Mint 12 work machine. One thing to keep in mind is that Linux AMD Graphics drivers so far have some significant graphical corruption when trying to render the new Gnome 3 GUI which is what Fedora, Linux Mint, and a bunch of others use as the default GUI (you can chose alternatives though). nVidia seems to be fine though. A new driver should be out soon to fix this.

Well Thank you all. This was years ago but when I was younger I heard that Linux was the way to go. Thanks for pointing out the differences to me. I will be going Win7 only because I plan to use the computer as a Gaming computer and I will be using an AMD GPU.

I really do think that this topic or one like it should be in the Sticky. That would save everyone alot of time when trying to figure which OS is best for them.

I like linux ubuntu. I know some of you will hate me for saying this but Linux always reminds me of magikarp from pokemon. When you first start out with it, all it can do is splash (crash). When you train it (install patches) and grow into it, it evolves into gyrados. Then that is the only pokemon (OS) you will ever use. That is until you realize every pokemon can magically use thunder and kill gyrados with one hit ( windows based games ). Sudenly you are forced to go back to your boring starter pokemon (windows 7) where nothing interesting happens (stable as crap).

Tjj, I would never have guessed you were a pokemon fan. I used to work at this comic/cards/DnD/Video game store. Every friday there was a Pokemon tournament that they hosted. It was crazy. 30+ kids without there parents. Gives me shivers just thinking about it. But that is were I truly fell in love with computer games. Before that I had never played a FPS with the mouse. It was there I was introduced to Half Life. I love the Half Life mods. My nick name came from that game. I used to go by Half-Lifes Junky. Now all my friends call me Junky. They say I will never live it down. Its been over 11 years!

Well sorry to get off topic. Thanks for your help in understanding Why I dont want Gyrados and instead I am going back to Charmander!

Tjj, I would never have guessed you were a pokemon fan. I used to work at this comic/cards/DnD/Video game store. Every friday there was a Pokemon tournament that they hosted. It was crazy. 30+ kids without there parents. Gives me shivers just thinking about it. But that is were I truly fell in love with computer games. Before that I had never played a FPS with the mouse. It was there I was introduced to Half Life. I love the Half Life mods. My nick name came from that game. I used to go by Half-Lifes Junky. Now all my friends call me Junky. They say I will never live it down. Its been over 11 years!

Well sorry to get off topic. Thanks for your help in understanding Why I dont want Gyrados and instead I am going back to Charmander!

Hahahahaha. I was never really one for the show, or even really the cards. But the games were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO addicting. You could play for an eternity and still not be done with the game. I started moving away from it when they had games for the DS though. I don't care for the DS, and I hate the new pokemon they have made. That all look like gay POS. At least charizard was a flying fire breathing dragon that could commit genocide on a whim, but what the hell am I supposed to do with this thing

Seriously, it is like they got the inspiration from a whack a mole machine. I guess I am supposed to feed it my charizard???? Personally, I would rather have to force feed a fire breathing dragon disgusting indian food than a stupid beaver. In fact, the only good thing to come out of the new pokemon series is this picture

Two things I hate wrapped into one. The death of pokemon genre, and a little lesbian. Seems like I save money on deer slugs

Alas though, I got my first pokemon game when I was ten. I kept asking for a PC so I could play doom........but I got a pokemon game instead. Go figure. My first FPS game was MW1 on the PS3 after begging my parents to let me have a game that had guns and killing in it (yeah....those type of parents), and I just got my first PC game 3 weeks ago off steam. It has been a longgggggggggggggg road to PC FPSs

Just be happy you were dealing with brainwashed kids instead of over protective parents. Otherwise you would have never gotten Half life..........believe me.

You can have and use linux. What some people do is that since linux doesn't get as many viruses as windows, and in theory it COULD be a more stable environment than windows, people will have a small windows partition with just their games, and then have a linux partition for things like surfing the web or photo shop. Generic things. You can want, and have linux, but you will always need a windows partition. Even Mac users have to have a windows partition. However, that doesn't mean it has to be your primary OS. What is really cool with things like Ubuntu or mint though is that you can get a 32-64 GB flash drive, and load the OS onto that flash drive itself. Then you can boot from the flash drive and have a full OS at your disposal. I have Ubuntu (and will probably go to Mint soon) on my 32 GB usb 3.0 drive so that when I go to the college campus, and alllllll the computers have all these admin restrictions on them. I just pop in my flash drive, boot from it, and suddenly I have full user ability on the PC rather than dealing with a boiled down web browsing pc. That is just one of the several ways you could want to use linux. Another would be if your windows partition gets some sort of terrible virus you could boot into you linux partition and kill the virus from that corner of your PC. If you are more of a tech guy than a gamer, there are a zillion reasons why linux can be a power OS and tool in addition to your windows partition.